santander 123 current account

awolo1

Hi,
Is the santander 123 current account a current account and savings account combined? I'd really like to apply for it, but I'm against the idea of having one account with all my cash in it. Can anybody confirm? cheers

molerat

It is simply a current account that pays interest on balances between £1k and £20k.

macman

You can simply use it as a savings account, which many of those who open it are already doing. You merely have to satisfy the £500 min monthly funding, and set up 2 DD's on it.
No requirement to do your other current account banking on it at all.

chili1496

i have just applied today and during the process i was offered an e-saver account aswell
http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1210610585635&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateB2

innovate

chili1496 wrote: »

i have just applied today and during the process i was offered an e-saver account aswell

Absolutely terrible interest rate on the esaver, only 1.25% You'd be mental putting any savings in there when you can get 2% in other savings accounts, and 3% in other current accounts.

matttye

If you're disciplined with your money it makes sense to just use one account because you'll have a higher balance throughout the month with which to gain interest.

innovate

matttye wrote: »

If you're disciplined with your money it makes sense to just use one account because you'll have a higher balance throughout the month with which to gain interest.

Very few accounts offer tiered interest rates (the Santander 123 being one of the few exceptions).

Fact remains that the presently available Santander esaver has an absolutely terrible interest rate and nobody in their right mind would put their money in there as long as you get up to more than double elsewhere.

matttye

innovate wrote: »

Very few accounts offer tiered interest rates (the Santander 123 being one of the few exceptions).

Fact remains that the presently available Santander esaver has an absolutely terrible interest rate and nobody in their right mind would put their money in there as long as you get up to more than double elsewhere.

Yeah it's definitely one of the better accounts, especially as it offers such a high cut-off point (£20k) for gaining interest. Most other current accounts are significantly lower.

What I meant in my post is that it makes sense to use a combined current/savings account because your balance will be higher throughout the month, so you'll not only get a higher interest rate, but you will also have more money in the account to gain interest on.

KTF

awolo1 wrote: »

Hi,
Is the santander 123 current account a current account and savings account combined? I'd really like to apply for it, but I'm against the idea of having one account with all my cash in it. Can anybody confirm? cheers

What do you want people to confirm? You either put up to 20k in it or you dont? Its up to you.

YorkshireBoy

matttye wrote: »

If you're disciplined with your money it makes sense to just use one account because you'll have a higher balance throughout the month with which to gain interest.

And what if there's a problem with their online banking, or debit card. How will you cope then?

One should always have access to a secondary source of funds, should the inevitable (all too common these days) happen!

Keeping, say, £500 elsewhere will cost you, at 3%, around 3p per day in lost interest (less if it makes interest elsewhere). Small price to pay?

matttye

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

And what if there's a problem with their online banking, or debit card. How will you cope then?

One should always have access to a secondary source of funds, should the inevitable (all too common these days) happen!

Keeping, say, £500 elsewhere will cost you, at 3%, around 3p per day in lost interest (less if it makes interest elsewhere). Small price to pay?

I meant that it makes sense to use one account for savings and day to day living expenses and bills. I didn't mean one account in total - I agree that it would make sense to have some separate emergency money tucked away somewhere in case of fraud/bank problems/etc.

I personally don't have an emergency account as I've never been burnt, but I can see the sense in it and will probably sort one out myself!